Teaching the Shoah

Reviews / Votes

'How can we even begin to weigh the extent to which one can and should parse an odious worldview in the classroom or assess unspeakable horrors? This volume brings together a highly varied group of authors who offer multiple responses to this question, with varied perspectives on how to shape the educational endeavor, the uniqueness of the Holocaust, and techniques for formulating the questions a course must address. Although teaching about the Holocaust on the college level often comes from Jewish Studies or History, the book addresses approaches from disciplines such as Literature, Philosophy, Politics, Religious Studies, and more.This book is a careful and thoughtful examination of multiple ways in which a complicated subject may be approached with both rigor and creativity in the third decade of the 21st century. And much is at stake: issues of antisemitism, racism, genocide, inter-group violence and debate, and an attack on human values are very much a part of our world. The mandate to teach the Shoah remains crucial, and the present volume should add momentum to the very best teaching.'Seth WardSenior Lecturer in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, University of Wyoming, USA'Zev Garber and Kenneth Hanson have both long been involved in writing books and essays on Judaism, Jewish history and Jewish-Christian relations over the centuries. Their reflections, and those of the contributors to this excellent collection do put the Shoah in its larger context of history. The essays will help those, whether Jewish or Christian, to prepare and teach courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels which seek to inform their students not only of the dire reality of the Shoah itself but how Christian approaches to and attacks on Jews and Judaism over the centuries prepared the way and laid the groundwork for the ultimate horror of the Nazi genocide of the Jewish people.'Eugene J. FisherDistinguished Professor of Theology, Saint Leo University, USA'Teaching the Shoah: Mandate and Momentum is the latest collection of academic essays to emerge from the fertile collaboration of Zev Garber and Kenneth Hanson which currently include Judaism and Jesus (2020); The Annotated Passover Haggadah (2021) and the present volume. All three present the creative and somewhat idiosyncratic perspectives of their various contributors; all three form the basis for stimulating reflection, conversation, and argument; and all three are part of the modern academic experience of religion. Readers of the current volume will find much here that satisfies in Hanson's freshly-analyzed and investigated pedagogical methods regarding the Shoah. Though small, the volume is, like the Jordan, both deep and wide. The volume is idiosyncratic and engaging, and belongs on all Holocaust instructors' shelves and bedside tables.'Peter S. ZaasProfessor of Religious Studies, Siena College, USA'The articles represent a variety of voices, those of the scholar, educator, playwright, and historical fiction author. The editors represent a synergetic pair. Zev Garber, Emeritus Professor and chair of Jewish Studies and Philosophy at Los Angeles Valley College, enlists his lifetime of classroom and scholarly experience to provide contemporary and diverse pedagogical strategies. Ken Hanson, Associate Professor and Coordinator of the University of Central Florida Judaic Studies Program, brings his scholarly work to pedagogical film making. Both men spring from traditional academic contexts in the Hebrew Bible, New Testament, Talmud, second temple Judaism, Dead Sea Scrolls, and Jewish-Christian relations that inform their quest to keep the memory of the Shoah alive through education. The collection is framed, not by the focus of the Jewish people as victims, but as those who survive, thrive, and celebrate life.All in all, the collection reflects the best practices commonly accepted for Shoah education both in the classroom and for community outreach.'Dr Roberta Sabbath University on Nevada, Las Vegas, USA, in Hebrew Higher Education 25 (2023) 143-145